Amway seeks for national policy on Direct Marketing

Trivandrum: Amway India, the largest direct selling company in the country, has called for a national policy on Direct Marketing. According to senior officials of the company, the absence of such a policy for the direct selling industry in India has led many dubious companies masquerading themselves as direct selling companies, causing damage to genuine direct sellers.

Interacting with the media in Trivandrum today, William S Pinckney, MD & CEO, Amway India said, “We are victims of a misinformation campaign in Kerala. Amway seeks for national policy on Direct Marketing in India. This should help direct sellers like us to have a fair play in the market. The absence of clearly defined guidelines or legislation gave Enforcement Agencies scope for misinterpreting rules, which were often used to harass genuine direct marketing companies. We stand committed to our business owners upholding the ethics of legitimate direct selling and we have an open money back policy for any unsatisfied distributor.”

Eight offices of Amway in Kerala have been shut since August 05, 2011 following Police raids as part of a drive against money chain activities and cheating through multi level marketing campaigns. The company has about 40,000 distributors in Kearla. “Even though our offices were closed and business in Kerala has come to a standstill, we have paid full commission for this month to our distributors”, Pinckney added.

Amway India is a fully owned subsidiary of $9.2 Billion Amway Corporation, USA. The company operates in 80 countries worldwide with 450 products and 30 lakh distributors and has been doing business for the last 51 years. Starting in 1998 in India, Amway has invested Rs.151 crores here out of which Rs.26 crore is FDI. Amway is the 14th FMCG Company in India with 130 products and 5.5 lakh distributors. In 2010, the company paid Rs.494 crores as commission to its distributors.